Requiem of Ghosts
Day 25... Chained. Darkness. Smelly. Distant screams of others. Tramp of the rough talons of guards in the corridors outside the door. That makes up what I see and hear every day. Nothing I can do but wait, and fiddle with my claws and some old bones I found in my food, as well as try to hold onto my sanity. The guards come with some rotten smelly thing for me to eat. I hate it, but it's all they bring me, that and scraps. I manage to get it down, and the guards drag me out, almost choking me by the way they are yanking on my neck clamp. They take me to a room that is sort of similar to the ones that I've been in before, but this one has nothing in it, except for a circle of rings with chains on them bolted to the floor and a pillar in the middle of the circle. The guards clip the ends of the chains on the rings to my ankles, neck, wings, and tail. Then the SkyWing guards move away, their red, orange, and gold scales flashing slightly in the dim light. They leave for several minutes, leaving me in the darkness. I feel claustrophobic. The walls of the room press into my scales, making me back away, and bump into the cold stone pillar. I want to scream, to yell, to get the guards to let me out. So I do. I scream, and roar, and claw at the incoming walls, until the walls stop coming and my voice is terribly hoarse. I strain against the chains, trying to get free. But I can't get free, no matter how hard I try. I go limp, too tired to do anything else. I close my eyes, and remember what life was like, fighting for my Queen, fighting against the HiveWings, who were trying to destroy us. Our commander had ordered us to retreat, with the HiveWing armies still advancing, slaughtering my comrades. I broke away from the group, but no HiveWings came after me. I hid in a cave. When morning came, I flew away from my homeland, Pantala, planning to never go home again. I flew and flew and flew, until I saw land, which I flew towards, and after several hours, reached a huge, seemingly endless mountain range. I flew through it, and then I heard wingbeats. Then the thing, I guess another dragon, seized me in its claws, and hissed, "Stupid dragon. You should know better than to go flying through enemy territory. But I suppose, I should introduce you to where you are, stranger. Welcome to the Claws of the Clouds Mountains, at the border of SkyWing territory." Then everything went black, and I woke up in a cell. The guards come back, giving me a small bit of light to see by. The light seems to drive away the darkness that is encroaching upon my traumatized mind. "Yes? The Queen shall see me?" I ask, looking up into the guard's sneering faces. "Unfortunately for you, prisoner, it appears that Queen Owl is busy, so you, lucky little gnat that you are, get to stay right where you are for the night." "WHAT??!! NO!! DON'T LET THE, THE WALLS TRY TO CRUSH ME AGAIN!! DON'T LEAVE ME IN THE DARK!! THE DARKNESS IS TRYING TO, TO KILL ME!! PLEASE!! THE DARKNESS WILL, WILL TRY TO DRIVE ME OVER THE EDGE!! PLEASE!! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE, WITH THE DARKNESS, AND THE WALLS!! PLEASE! SKYLARK... PLEASE... DON'T LEAVE ME!!" One of the SkyWing guards started to turn towards me, but then the leader, said, "No. Don't listen. That dragon's just a prisoner, just a ghost, nothing more. That dragon has no mind, no personality, no feelings. That dragon is nothing. Do you understand me, Skylark? Nothing. ''That dragon will always be nothing, destined to be forgotten. First by you, then by the world. That dragon has no love or feelings. That dragon is a nobody. Now, do your job, and pretend like you didn't hear. Ignore it." Then the two SkyWings headed back the way they came. The words of the SkyWing guard swirled around and around my mind, making me unable to hear anything but. '''That dragon's just... a ghost, nothing more... Has no mind, no personality, no feelings... Will always be... nothing.... Destined to be... forgotten... by Skylark and the world... No love or feelings... Is a nobody... Destined to be... forgotten... Is nobody... Just a prisoner... just a ghost... No mind, no... personality... Is nothing... Will always be... nothing... Nothing... Nothing... Nothing... ' ''The word ''Nothing ''echoes in my fragmented mind, allowing the darkness to close in again. I scream once, a long, loud sound of terror that echoes in the room. The walls start moving towards me again, but I am too tired to fight them. I let them come. Together, the darkness and the walls try to kill me, closing around my neck, chest, and mind, and squeezing so that I can't breathe. I claw at the walls and the darkness, but they don't loosen their grip. I howl, scream, and strain against the chains, willing them to break so that I can get out of the cold grip of the darkness and the oncoming walls. Then I slash against the walls, willing them to leave. They don't. Instead, they keep coming. The darkness and the walls continue to squeeze, eventually causing everything to go black. Day 26... I wake up suddenly, glad that the walls and the darkness have retreated, at least for now. There are talonsteps nearby, so maybe, just maybe, Skylark or some other guard has come to let me out of here. The talonsteps come closer, and I can hear a muffled conversation outside of the door. "... Remember, Skylark. Pretend that the prisoner doesn't mean anything to you. If you keep a straight face and act like you're better than the prisoner, the Queen may elevate you to a higher position." "Yes..." I want to throw myself at the door, claw my way through, and kill every dragon there, except for Skylark. But I can't because the chains won't let me. The guards come in, and Skylark is there, but he is staring past me, like I don't exist, his features hard, like the cold stone walls around us. The same guard who talked to me before throws a rotten piece of meat in my direction, and I gulp it down, wanting more, my tongue hanging out of my mouth and saliva dribbling onto the floor. The chains rub on my ankles, and hurt. The guard laughs meanly, and says, "You won't be getting any more food today, little dog. Keep on begging, 'cause I love it. But I ain't giving you anymore." I growl at the guard, and think, '''I am going to starve to death if you don't give me more food!' ''The guard says, "Go on, little doggie. Roll over and beg. Or you could starve, although we wouldn't want that, 'cause you have so much great information to put to use, and if you're dead, well, it would be wasted." The guard and Skylark leave, but this time, I don't yell at him to stay. I know he won't listen. He won't see, and he won't hear. Several hours later, the Queen comes. The guards stand on either side of her, and she asks me questions, none of which I answer. The questions are ones like: "What is your name? What tribe are you from? What continent are you from? What is your occupation? How old are you?" That sort of thing. I never give her the answers she wants, though. The guards slap me when I give a wrong answer, and finally, the Queen growls, "Make her talk." to the guard on my right, who slapped me the most. "Yes, my Queen." the guard says. The guard flicks his tail at the second guard, who grips my forearm in her's so tightly, I want to bite her. The first guard comes back, with something in his talon, that looks like several tightly woven pieces of rope tied together with things that look like sharp fragments of bone and glass, as well as possibly jagged pieces of metal, sticking out at various intervals. The Queen narrows her eyes, and the second guard steps away, seeing that I can't move much. Then something whistles in the stale, deadly quiet air, and lands on my back and my wings, ripping backwards, and making it feel like I just got burnt by lava. It happens again, and again, and again, but I don't say anything. I never make a sound. The Queen finally tells the guard to stop, but by that time, I am barely conscious, with black spots fading in and out of my vision. I barely hear the Queen order the guards to leave me here, but to go grab a healer to deal with me and my 'situation', as she called it. Like you could call being nearly beaten to death just a situation, like it's not that big of a deal. The Queen and the guards leave, all three of them stepping carefully around the puddle of blood that is slowly pooling around me on the floor. I feel faint, and hardly see the dragon come in with a bucket, walking over and saying, "Hey, kid. How're you doing?" I don't reply. Instead, I just groan, and try to get up, but fail. "Ssshhhh, don't try moving." the healer said. I recognize the dragon's voice. "Skylark...?" I whisper hoarsely, trying to focus and not faint. "Yeah. It's me. i work part time as a healer. So, I'm not just your guard." He laughed dryly. "Ouch. I'm seeing that they got you good. Forty times... You must be a very strong dragon." I could hardly believe my ears. The guard had sent the rope thing through my back and my wings ''forty times?! I tried to move, but Skylark said, "No moving. This is gonna hurt, I'm just sayin', but I need you to be strong, like with the guard, and try not to scream. Here, bite down on this." He hands me a rolled up cloth, and I bite down hard, waiting for whatever he was going to do. "Shh." he whispers, holding my talon. He slowly drags something across whatever the guard had done, and it stings. I bite down, and roll my shoulders. "Don't tense up, Ashe. Shh. Just relax." He says my name, and I grip his talon, wanting him not to leave when he's done. "Please," I whisper hoarsely. "Skylark, don't leave me." "I'm sorry, Ashe, but I have to go." Then the SkyWing stands up, takes the bucket, and leaves, locking the door behind him and leaving me laying in the darkness, with nothing but the darkness for company. Day 342... The guards finally did it. They broke me. I spilled everything, like a sack of beans without a bottom. They took me out later on Day 26 of my stay here, and locked me back up in my cell. The food they give me is old, rotten scraps of meat, but they are the only thing I get, and I have begun to have a craving for nothing but the scraps. I have also begun to have strange images of dragons, like my Mother, Father, Commander, and Queen talking to me. In the back of my mind, I know they aren't really there, but I long for companionship after so many long months of being alone. So I let them stay. They talk to me. I love it, to the point where once, I licked the wall in an attempt to hug my parents. Another thing I began experiencing is a weird ringing sound in my ears, like a very loud bell or something. The guards have begun to call me names like 'Bloodclaws', 'Corpse Breath', and 'Bloodbath', I guess because I always have blood all over me when I finish eating, and my breath smells like rotten meat. I find that when I talk to the guards, or to the queen, I add 's' on a lot of my words, which makes me sound like I'm drunk. The guards continue to beat me up, and nearly kill me most of the time, which brings Skylark in a lot. I still miss him. Even if I have started talking super weird, and experiencing things that aren't normal, I still like him. Even if I am going insane, that doesn't mean my feelings toward him would change, would it? For some reason, I also laugh at inappropriate times now. Such as when the guards are hitting me, which makes them give me super weird looks, like Can you believe this dragon?' '' Several days ago, I began to experience voices in my head telling me to kill the guards the next time I see them. I try, and I fail. I fell unconscious for a while, so I don't know if I knocked myself out, or if the guards did it, but when I wake up, I see blood on my talons, which isn't new, other than the fact that it isn't dried. My scales sting, on my legs, my neck, my sides, and my wings, and I look to see blood all over me. At first, I think it's blood from whatever I was eating, but then I looked to the floor, and saw several bright green scales, as well as some dark green ones, and I realize with horror that I must have ripped several of my own scales out. I can't move my wings because they hurt so bad, so I just lay on the floor, and hear the 'leader' of the voices in my head start screaming about how I'm useless, and a nobody, and weak, and a whole bunch of other stuff that makes me want to claw my brains out to get the voices out. Skylark doesn't come, but the guards throw me some scraps, which I eat with delight. '''Soon.' ''I think. '''I'll be free, and you'll all be dead.' '' Day 355... I have waited so long for freedom, and today, I shall have it. The voices in my head tell me how to get free, how to kill the guards, and survive. When the guards come to unlock my chains, I rip their throats open so viciously, that I beheaded one of them. I snap the chains, and run out, the chains clanking on the floor behind me. Several guards shout, "A prisoner's escaping! After her!" I thought Skylark was off duty today, but I didn't really know, and I wasn't able to find him, but I killed every guard I came across, then used my power over plants to grow an enormous vine that would crush the prison from the outside, leaving everyone in it dead. The vine did it's work, and the prison collapsed in on itself, sending up a gargantuan cloud of dust, along with several screams of agony and terror. I flew off, leaving the dragons trapped inside, feeling nothing for any of them. I flew and flew and flew, not stopping, except for a long drink of water, then kept flying. I eventually arrived at a cave under the SkyWing Palace. I walked in, and scrawled on the wall, 'FOR THOSE LEFT BEHIND: YOU DON'T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THE FUTURE IF YOU GO INSANE. ~ Corpse Flower''''. Then I fell asleep, waking up and feeling claustrophobic, thinking I was still in the prison. But I wasn't. Finally free... but without Skylark. I miss him. I miss him, but I know I can't have him. He doesn't deserve an unhinged, starving, murderous monster like me for a mate, or a friend. Especially because I'd probably kill him, anyway. Category:Fanfictions Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete) Category:Fanfictions (Fanon) Category:Mature Content